Bette grinned. “On the grounds that-?”

“Yes,” Tina said, cutting her off. “Exactly.”

Bette’s grin was huge now and Tina could feel it through the phone. “Tina” Bette sighed. “You are really adorable.”

“And hot, don’t forget,” Tina said, her anxiety draining away.

“And hot,” Bette agreed. “And I am just here, and intrigued”

“And horny,” Tina insisted suddenly.

“Soo horny…” Bette replied, giving over to her most come hither voice. If Tina could be vulnerable, why couldn’t she? “But I’m not going to use and abuse you if that’s what you thinkI mean, I’m not an *****.” She frowned at the admission, wondering why she felt the need to make it.

Tina’s heart lightened and she shook her head, stifling the stupidest grin. “You’re not going to use and abuse me,” she repeated.

Bette recognized the return of that *****, teasing tone, and felt prepared. “Unless you want me to.”

Tina did it, she laughed out loud. “You are sooo good,” she drawled giddily, feeling hot and ***** and even more ridiculously turned on than before. She fanned herself cartoonishly. “God, I hope I’m up to this,” she muttered before catching herself.

Bette repressed her own laugh. “This?” she inquired innocently, emphasizing the word.

Tina bit her lip and smiled. Yeah, this. How hot was this.

“This,” she repeated. “I’m trying to be up to this. I want to be.” She was talking again, this time without thinking.

“Oh I’m sure you’re up to this,” came Bette’s sultry reply. “Whatever this is.”

Tina returned silence, and the gentle urge to intervene, which Bette normally never felt, struck again. “For what it’s worth, Tina,” and she found herself caressing the name with her voice, “I don’t know what this is either. I just know that it is. Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Tina responded immediately. “Right.” Her voice grew calmer. “And that’s what I’m telling myself. Stay in the moment. The moment’s all there is.”

Bette flinched. And couldn’t tell why. Furrowing her brow, she imagined that face in front of hers, and felt sudden impatience with the phone and its shortcomings. “Tina, I think we’re going to find out what this is together. And I think it’s not going to happen until you’re standing in front of me.” She sounded surer than she felt.

“Right,” Tina said, trying to sound resolute. “Of course.”

“You’re not freaking are you?” Bette asked soothingly, and Tina thought she might lose her mind at the newest tone. Was it possible that soothing Bette was the hottest Bette yet?

“No, no, not freaking,” she responded. “Just a freak, you know?” She laughed.

Bette laughed too, lowering her voice to a slight rasp. “No, I don’t know actually. But please tell me I’m going to find out.”

Tina balked again, slowly pulling the phone away from her mouth and looking at it, submitting to another unmistakable pause, before sliding it back against her cheek. “I don’t think I can do this over the phone.”

“I agree,” said Bette. “But you can definitely do this.”

Tina nodded. “I can,” she said, encouraging herself out loud, and doing it in front of Bette, which didn’t feel as impossible as she’d thought. “I definitely can.”

Bette sat, savoring Tina’s claimed confidence, while Tina heard it in herself and marveled. “I want to make you crazy,” she admitted.

Bette’s eyes fluttered shut and she sighed. “Are we confessing again?”

“Yeah,” Tina said, imitating Bette’s haughty vocal stylings. “You go.”

Another vintage pause. “I want you so much I can barely breathe.”

The words reached Tina’s ear at the same moment her fingers reached the crux between her legs. And there was nothing teasing in that tone. Tina knew it. And she couldn’t respond. She had nothing witty left. Nothing.

Glancing at her watch, and noting Dean heading her way from the front door, she spoke with routine efficiency into the phone. “I’ll be there in ten minutes.”